Questions worth asking out loud.

A will alone passes through probate — a public, court-supervised process that often takes 6–18 months. A revocable trust avoids probate, keeps your affairs private, and lets a successor trustee step in if you become incapacitated. We don't recommend a trust for every client; sometimes a will + POAs is the right call. Meeting one is where we figure that out together.

A financial POA names someone to act on your behalf for financial matters — paying bills, managing accounts, filing taxes — if you can't. A medical POA (also called a healthcare proxy) names someone to make medical decisions for you. Both are essential, and both are included in every Octus bundle.

Octus Estate is a financial advisory firm — not a law firm. We deliver estate-planning documents using the Estately platform, and where attorney involvement is required, legal services are provided by attorneys licensed in your state through Estately + Counsel (operated by Advanced Services Law Group). Your Octus advisor guides you through the process; a licensed attorney handles the legal work. See our full disclosures for details.

From first meeting to signing, typically 3–5 weeks for a Complete Plan. The pace is set by you; we've completed plans in 10 days for clients facing a deadline.

All three meetings can be done over secure video. For clients in Central Florida, we meet at our office. For clients outside Central Florida, we conduct meetings virtually — on your smartphone or computer. The signing meeting requires a notary, which we coordinate either way.

Yes. You're assigned one advisor at intake and they stay with you through all three meetings, annual reviews, and any future amendments.

Ideally, your beneficiaries' personal information — full legal names, dates of birth, and contact details. If you'd like to be extra prepared: a rough list of your accounts and real estate, plus copies of any existing wills or trusts. After our fit call, if you'd like to move forward, we'll email an intake form — the information you fill in there is what we work from in the first meeting.

Absolutely. Most of our clients are married couples doing joint or mirror plans. There's no additional cost for a second spouse on the same plan — the flat fee covers both.

The flat fee covers all three meetings, attorney review in your state, document preparation, processing, filing administration, notary coordination, trust funding guidance, and a printed binder with all of your documents at signing. The only outside cost is county recording fees if you choose to title your home into the trust — you file this with your county directly between meetings 2 and 3, and we provide step-by-step guidance. A fireproof safe is optional and not something we sell; if you'd like one, we link a model on Amazon that we recommend.

A single payment is collected at the end of meeting two. It covers document preparation, processing, filing administration, attorney review, notary coordination, and your binder. Meeting one (the fit call and intake) carries no charge — if either side decides we're not the right fit, you walk away with no obligation.

Existing clients can upgrade to a Complete Plan for the difference between bundles. We'll credit what you've already paid against the new total.

No. Our work is paid in full in one payment at meeting two. We've found that if the flat fee feels like a stretch, the assets being planned for usually don't warrant a trust in the first place — and a simpler last will may be the better fit. We'd rather have that honest conversation up front than stretch payments over months. Estate planning isn't covered by insurance.

Yes — all 50 states plus DC. Documents are reviewed by an attorney licensed in your state of residence.

Your trust travels with you. POAs and wills sometimes need state-specific amendments — we offer a one-time relocation review at a reduced rate ($450) for existing clients. The trust itself does not need to be redrafted.

Yes. We use bank-grade encryption (AES-256 at rest, TLS 1.3 in transit), SOC 2 Type II–certified infrastructure, and a zero-knowledge document vault. We never sell or share client data.

Major life events — marriage, divorce, birth, death, big asset purchase or sale, move to a new state — warrant a call. Otherwise an annual review is plenty. We schedule that complimentary review with you every year.

You keep the originals. We provide a binder with all of your documents at signing, and store digital copies in your Octus vault. If you'd like to keep them in a fireproof safe, we link a model on Amazon that we recommend (see our affiliate disclosure) — we don't sell safes ourselves.

Your successor trustee contacts us. We walk them through their responsibilities at no charge for the first hour, and provide them with an executor's checklist. They can choose to hire us for trust administration if they'd like ongoing help; otherwise we hand off cleanly.